Bittersweet
by laurelsblue
Summary: Team Minato is reunited after seventeen years. They can't go back to the way they were but might just be able to make something new and better. Spoilers all the way up to 422.


Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

A/N: Semi-sequel to Duality but can stand on its own.

Bittersweet

Kakashi is fairly sure he'll die here. After all, he is facing the man who took out Jiraiya on his own. Then a man with long spiky black hair appears in front of him, facing Pein.

"Madara?" Pein questions.

"Nah, he's gone for good," the man replies and his voice is very familiar. _I will beat you once I get the Sharingan!_

"Obito?" he murmurs.

Kakashi wonders how he can tell that the man (Obito?) is grinning when he can't see his face but dismisses it as a woman with long brown hair checks him for injuries. He catches a glimpse of purple stripes as she bends over him.

"Rin?" he whispers.

She smiles and says, "You can rest now, Kakashi. Obito is taking care of it."

She blinks briefly. At least, he's not the only one who finds the statement odd. They both remember all the times when it was the other way round.

"What's going on? Why are you alive?" he asks.

"I don't know much more than you. He woke me up in a hurry and said we had to go to Konoha now," she responds, not actually answering his question.

"We should help him," he tells her. He has put aside all the questions he wants to ask for now.

"We can't. I don't know what happened to him exactly but I think even you would have a hard time beating him now," she states.

He can tell that she does know or at least has an idea but he doesn't call her on it. He may not be a medic but he knows that there is little chance of surviving having one side of your body crushed by rocks. The few shinobi who could save you would use extremely forbidden techniques and require a very high price for their aid. He doesn't want to think about what Obito might have had to pay.

And then the body Obito had been fighting goes down and Chouza is there with reinforcements. To Chouza's credit, he doesn't gasp with shock but tells Kakashi that he should go see the Hokage with his friends. He can handle it for now.

* * *

"Team Minato reporting for duty," he tells Tsunade because their sensei may have been dead for over fifteen years but calling themselves anything else is just wrong.

Tsunade just stares at them. He supposes that they must make quite a picture. He doesn't care though because his team is together again even if Minato is missing.

She shakes herself and says dryly, "Team Minato. That would be the one that's supposed to only have one member left, right, Kakashi?"

It's Obito that responds, "I decided that it wasn't a good day to die after all."

"And what about Rin? Actually, I don't care at the moment. I've got a one-man wrecking crew out there and his partner who's killing people by cocooning them in paper of all things. Once this is over, I'll deal with you. Now get back out there and fight," she commands.

* * *

Kakashi-sensei looks alive, Sakura thinks. She hadn't realised it before but he had been all sharp edges, broken pieces that had healed wrong or not at all. Team 7's self-destruction probably hadn't helped, she reflects guiltily.

She doesn't recognise the man and woman with him though. The man looks like an Uchiha complete with lone red eye even though Sasuke was meant to be the only one left but the woman's completely unfamiliar. She blinked, _lone_ red eye? He's probably about Kakashi-sensei's age as well... She files that thought away for later and watches them fight briefly.

They work together well. The woman seems to be a medic and she is pulling people out of the rubble while Kakashi-sensei and the strange Uchiha take on Pein.

* * *

Rin glances at the girl who had joined her in looking for survivors. She thinks that the clan symbol on the back of the girl's vest is a civilian one despite the Konoha hitai-ate being used as a headband. Interesting, but not unusual, she guesses. She remembers the days when advertising the fact you didn't belong to a ninja family was practically painting a target on their backs. Obviously, being part of a generation growing up without war had changed that.

"I'm Sakura," the girl says.

"Rin," she replies.

Sakura appears to be a medic as well. They arrange people in rough order of severity of injuries, their hands glowing green. While she heals, she thinks about her situation. She has mostly pieced together what happened to Obito and she worries what will happen when Tsunade is told the full story. Kakashi will stand by him and she's concerned about that as well. She doesn't know if his support will help or drag them down further.

She's not sure how much fifteen years has changed the village and is almost afraid to find out. Familiar names will cover the memorial stone, she knows that much and hers will be one of them. Fitting for someone who still isn't sure how she's still alive. Oh, she's forgiven Obito for what he did because he's stupidly overprotective like that but the fact remains that she's missing fifteen years of her life and she has no idea how to get them back or even if it's possible.

* * *

Obito finds it easy to slip into a rhythm fighting alongside Kakashi even after all these years. He had worried that he would not be able to perform as well as Madara would have in battle but his body responds better than he expects. This gives him time to think. He doesn't know what state his mind is in after his battle with Madara left him in control and Madara thrown out completely. There are blank spots, for example, he can't remember what he had been given for his fifth birthday but he thinks that he managed to cling on to the important things like memories of his team.

He knows that he will be lucky to escape a death sentence once this is over. Kakashi will defend him regardless of the charges and he's not sure whether this is touching or worrying, given that they haven't seen each other for nearly seventeen years. (This is not quite true but since Kakashi didn't realise who Tobi was, it doesn't count.)

* * *

Kakashi worries that he'll wake up and Obito and Rin will be gone again. After that comes the pressing question of why exactly Pein had called Obito Madara. This is something he thinks that he knows the answer to but can't admit it even to himself because the implications are too vast for him to deal with at the moment.

He thought he was over their deaths (mostly) but when they return, he can barely cope with having them back. He isn't going to tell them that he wants to hide in a corner somewhere because he was fine without them really and he doesn't know how to deal with them any more.

* * *

When they finally report to her office, Tsunade has already gone through one jug of sake and is starting on her second. After she hears their story, she regrets this because she knows that it will take at least three to have it all make sense and Shizune will be in to check on her any moment.

She's glad though that Madara is gone because she took the time to read the reports of that last mission. There are techniques that she is (vaguely) aware of which could achieve what must have happened but they are the sort of kinjutsu that only Orochimaru or perhaps Kabuto would dare use due to their high cost. Some boundaries just should not be crossed after all.

Rin is surprising though. Fifteen years is a _long_ time to sleep and she was able to fight if necessary a few days after being woken up... If Obito can remember some of those techniques, they could be very useful for coma patients or people recovering from serious injuries otherwise requiring a long time to get back in shape. Sometimes Tsunade is too much of a medic.

She realises that they are shattered. Rin has lost fifteen years of her life, Obito will probably never recover all of his memories, and Kakashi isn't handling anything no matter how relaxed he seems. But they're strong and she has high hopes for them. Now all she has to do is convince the council of this. Her next sip is a very long one and nearly empties half the saucer before Shizune takes it away.

* * *

They visit the memorial stone when it's over. Kakashi points to names and tells stories of final battles. Later in the privacy of his apartment, he and Rin will tell Obito about Kushina and what she did for them and Minato. They will ask him about his team and he will regale them with tales of a lazy sensei, brooding genius, fangirl, and dead last loudmouth. They won't say it seems familiar because shinobi tend to fall into patterns without even realising it. Obito will add scenes from the private lives of the Akatsuki and Team Taka. He will explain that Sasuke might actually care for his new team. Rin will stay silent during this because she doesn't have anything to say completely of her own and her dreams seem silly now that she's awake again.

That night, they all sleep in a pile on the floor because Kakashi's bed isn't big enough for three adults even if Rin has never been particularly tall.

The next morning, they wake up all tangled together and quickly reassure themselves that they're still all here. Obito and Rin still have to face the council's judgement but they think they might just be all right because they're a team and together, they're unstoppable.

* * *

Team Minato is love. I know I glossed over what exactly happened to Pein and Konan but pretend Naruto came and saved the day or something. I like them so I didn't want to actually write them dying even though they probably have to. (Also I'm rubbish at action scenes.)

Forgive my run-on sentences and inability to write dialogue.

This is the longest thing I've written so far and I'm kind of proud of it.


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